Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-06-09
JUSTICE IN GEORGIA.

The People Arriving at a Determination
that Governor Gordon's Sympathetic Ma
ture Shall Not Stand in the Way of the
Due Execution of Condemned Murderers.
ATLANTA, Ga, June 3.-There are four
delayed exc cutions in Georgia which the
people propose to see carried out, even if
lynching has to be resorted to. As
already stated in former dispatch j. W.
Smith, VINO was to have been executed
last Friday, was respited by Governor
Gordon for three weeks. Several meet
ings were held and plans perfe cted tc
see that Smith pays the penalty of the
law. The following resolution was passed
at meeting Tuesday.
Be it Resolved by the citizens OF Heard
County that we disapprove of the action of
Governor Gordon in respiting J. W. Smith.
We are law-abiding citizens, and petitioned
him not to interfere with the judgment and
sentence of the court; but disregarding our
very humble petition, he. the Governor of
Georgia, was controlled by Smiths attorneys
who from the beginning of the case
have practiced every kind of INSCRIPTIONS
tactics to delay and defeat justice, and have
burdened Heard County with the debt of nearly
$4,000 We condemn the action of Smiths at.
torneys, not for defending him well, but for the
long delay in the execution of the law and the
debt imposed on us, and in the last event for
trying to have undone what the people of this
county and juries say ought to be done to wit
that j. w. Smith ought to be hanged.
1t was only by strong appeals that the
meeting was dissuaded from Iynching
Smith. The meeting then adopted the fol.
lowing:
We say to the people of this county await
with patience till June II and do not resort to
violence. Justice will yet be done.
The Commissioners of the county then met
and passed the order: I'VE order the sheriff of
the county to safely keep ]. w. Smith the
fyxyn1 dave 10 or1n thaC
and for him to keep sufficient guard for
Smiths safe-keeping, and at the expiration OF
the respite of twenty days he is ordered to car
~ out the sentence Of the court
Under this order body of men known
to be hostile to Smith have been placed
over him, and the intention is publicly
expressed that, regardless of the Gov
ernor's wishes, when June IL comes
Smith must be hanged. The fact that
prisoner should thus be held by his duly
appointed lynchers is causing some COM
ment, but no one dares to gainsay the de-
cision, realizing that it would be danger.
Gus to do in the present temper of the
people.
1t is only two weeks since the sentence
of Leggett, the Tatnall County wife-mur.
derer, was set aside for thirty days by
Governor Gordon Leggett's counsel set
up the plea that their client was insane.
The sensational story of his rescue by the
arrival of his counsel just in time to save
him from the gallows has already been
told -
In Schley County there is another pris-
oner whose trial and conviction have al
most bankrupted the county. In 1885 some
assassin killed one of Schley's most re-
spected young men, S. J. Tondee, and sus-
picion and circumstantial evidence rested
on Charles Blackman. He was convicted,
but the enforcement of his sentence is as
far off as ever
Governor Gordon is so sympathetic that
he can not resist petitions loated by
tears. The people in the communities
named have great bills of the trials to
pay, and feeling that convictions amount
to naught have become des perate.